The government will support efforts to enhance the utilization of unused patents held by universities and public research institutes.
The Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced on March 3 that it will be recruiting institutions to participate in the "2026 Government R&D Patent Assessment Support Project" from April 4 to April 24.
This project provides customized consulting by evaluating the technical, legal, and market viability of patents held by universities and public research institutes that apply for assessment. Through inventor interviews, each patent is classified into categories such as "utilize," "maintain," or "dispose," and the optimal intellectual property management strategy is proposed. The core focus is to re-evaluate the value of unused patents held by these institutions and to support strategic patent management.
In particular, this year KIPO has tripled the project budget compared to last year, increasing it to 1.5 billion won, and expanded the number of supported institutions from 25 to 75, with a focus on improving the investment efficiency of national R&D projects.
To this end, in line with the government's "Five Core Regions and Three Specialized Zones" national balanced growth strategy, KIPO will introduce and support regionally balanced designated projects to foster the growth and advancement of regional intellectual property (IP) innovation ecosystems. In addition, a dedicated program for small-scale institutions will be newly established to address blind spots in intellectual property management.
By introducing a small-scale project type, the accessibility for smaller institutions will also be strengthened. This approach moves away from the previous support system centered on large institutions with a high number of patents and diversifies the support types so that institutions holding fewer patents can benefit equally.
To facilitate the transfer of outstanding patents from universities and public research institutes to the private sector for commercialization, KIPO will overhaul the existing project structure (which previously focused on simple patent grading) into a full-package support system.
KIPO plans to support the creation of technology introduction documents (SMK) for patents classified as "utilize," and to help present these patented technologies on public technology transaction platforms such as the IP-Market run by the Korea Invention Promotion Association and at cross-ministerial public technology transfer and commercialization roadshows. This is intended to promote active online and offline technology transactions between suppliers and demanders.
Further details about the project are available on the KIPO website and the integrated IP support portal. Applications for the project can be submitted via the integrated IP support portal.
"Many universities and public research institutes are unable to systematically manage their vast patent portfolios, resulting in unnecessary annual maintenance costs," said Kim Yongseon, Commissioner of KIPO. "This year, KIPO will significantly expand its budget and support scale to provide thorough assistance even to small public institutions and regional universities, reduce unnecessary patent maintenance burdens, and help establish a virtuous cycle for discovering promising patent technologies, enabling technology transactions and commercialization."
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